Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain

Remember the membership description in your community strategy doc? The first 100 members in your community are key. Why? They will overwhelmingly set the tone for the community (another part of your doc!) and play a pivotal role in how it grows. The first 100 are the seeds of your community’s garden — how you plant them is very important.

Onboarding at every stage: So you have your first 100 members, created a delightful onboarding experience that welcomes your members without overwhelming them, and drafted documentation. Now what? Onboarding is an ongoing process. Onboarding happens to some extent at every stage of a community member’s journey. Humans aren’t static, so

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The great part is that you get to hand select these members and extend personal invitations to all of them. You accomplish a few things just by doing this: Your first members know you, the human behind the community, the person behind the curtain. You know your first members, who will be a part of your core team and teach you a lot about your commu

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We all know that feeling of belonging to something — comfort, happiness, peace. It feels like magic being in your place with your people and being able to play your role in the glue that holds that space together. Many communities capture these ephemeral, magical moments of the human condition and turn them into lasting, life-changing relationships... See more

This is just one of many drafts you can use, but the takeaways: Keep it simple, Keep it honest, Personalize, personalize, personalize. Again, your first 100 members are going to be brought on by processes that don’t scale: personalized outreach, 1:1 calls, personalized follow ups, personalized suggestions, personalized emails. Which brings us

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